Dinner and a show? Cute.
Dinner where a dancer wearing a lampshade suddenly materialises among the audience, someone gets involved in a very questionable cream-related incident and a shoe becomes a drinking vessel? Now we’re talking.
That is essentially Society at Viva – where the usual rules of dinner theatre are apparently checked at the door.
With red velvet, low lighting, cocktails and tables arranged around the stage, the scene is set. But Society quickly makes one thing clear: you are not simply here to watch.
Instead, Viva has created something that sits somewhere between cabaret, circus, nightclub and the sort of dinner party your sensible aunt would strongly advise you not to attend.
One minute you’re concentrating on your cocktail and prawn toast, the next a dancer in a lampshade has appeared among the tables. It sounds like the beginning of a fever dream, but at Viva it is apparently Tuesday night.
And then there are the aerial acts, which provide the moments when you remember that beneath all the sequins, smirks and increasingly suspicious props, these people are extremely serious athletes. Society’s circus component includes aerial work alongside ground and ground-to-air acts, with performers trained across disciplines including aerial dance and acrobatics.
The current cast includes dancer-aerialist Jackie Chambers, whose CV is considerably more impressive than anything involving a lampshade has any right to be. She has performed with Dua Lipa, Tones and I, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Guy Sebastian and The Veronicas, as well as appearing in Opera Australia’s La Traviata on Sydney Harbour and Burn the Floor.
So yes, there is actual circus skill happening here. It just happens to arrive wrapped in a generous serving of mischief.
The choreography keeps things moving at a cracking pace, while the singers bring the polished cabaret vocals you’d expect from a show that takes its theatrical credentials seriously. Then, just when you’ve settled into watching from your table, Society remembers that it promised to be immersive and sends something – or someone – your way.
Which brings us to the cream.
And the Shoe-ie.
I’m deliberately not explaining either because part of the joy of Society is the slow realisation that you have entered an environment where apparently anything can happen and nobody is going to stop it.
The result is a night that feels considerably more playful than your standard theatre outing. You can order food and drinks before the show, during the performance and at intermission, so you don’t have to choose between dinner and entertainment.
And while the halloumi croquettes, a wagyu sando and desserts like nutella churros, give the evening its dinner-party structure, Society is really about the spectacle. The venue itself takes inspiration from a 1920s spiegeltent, with curved red seating surrounding the performance space to create a deliberately intimate connection between the audience and performers.
It is also very much an adults-only affair. Viva flags adult themes, coarse language, strobe lighting, haze and partial nudity, so this isn’t the place to bring your mother unless your mother is significantly more fun than mine.
Although, frankly, she’d probably enjoy the Shoe-ie.
Viva Melbourne, Level 2, 64-90 Sutton Street, North Melbourne. Society runs on selected dates, with tickets currently ranging from around 74-135 depending on seating. 18+.
